


To Challenge Fate

by ElsaFH (Elsa0806)



Series: AtsuHina Week 2020 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, AtsuHina Week, AtsuHina Week 2020, Fluff, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Pining, Pining Miya Atsumu, Romantic Soulmates, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Volleyball Dorks in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24601030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsa0806/pseuds/ElsaFH
Summary: AtsuHina Week, Day 2: Soulmates AU.In a world where soulmates were connected through pain, Hinata Shouyou was fate’s biggest enemy, and Miya Atsumu wanted nothing but bend to its will.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu
Series: AtsuHina Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777000
Comments: 30
Kudos: 368





	To Challenge Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Henlo, frens! This is Eli, comin' at you with my second submission for this year's AtsuHina Week! 
> 
> I'm so thankful for the comments, kudos, and general love I've gotten from yesterday's fic that I cannot hold all of these uwus. They're all over the place, look at them. Poor things. 
> 
> Today's prompt is Soulmates so I decided to go for shared pain. Why? Because I believe shared pain (be it physical or emotional) forms the deepest, strongest, most meaningful bonds. And I love this ship so much that I had to make something important for them. So here we are!
> 
> I hope you enjoy the fic<3 See ya at the end notes!

The first time Atsumu had to drop whatever he was doing because of the pain he shared with his soulmate, was in his first year of high school.

It felt as if something had pierced through his heart, leaving him breathless, bent in half by the waist. It wasn’t the first time he felt the muffled pain getting to him through the bond he shared with this person he had yet to meet— but it was, in fact, the first time it had been so overwhelming. He was kind of used to it by now: whoever his soulmate was, they were always going through some sort of physical pain. His forearms, his legs, his fingers. Atsumu could ignore it before, push it into the darkest corner of his mind and live through it… but not this. _This_ was heartbreak filling his chest like poison.

“’Tsumu?”

Osamu’s voice seemed to clear the fog that had filled his vision and was currently hanging over his brain, if only for a second. Enough for Atsumu to hiss through his gritted teeth, something akin to a growl vibrating through his vocal cords. What was his soulmate up to? They’d interrupted his toss, goddammit.

“’m fine,” He blurted out, blinking away the tears that had welled up in his eyes. This was no physical pain— this was _emotional_ pain, one so big Atsumu felt his knees weakening, his legs threatening to give out under the weight of his body. “Just gimme a moment.”

Osamu grabbed his arm and dragged him to the bench, pushing him until he was sitting. The first thing he did after finally managing to sit down was to let his head hang forward until it reached the height of his knees. His throat hurt, the ghost of non-spilled tears choking him like a fist closed around his neck. There was an oppressive feeling weighing down in the pit of his stomach, reaching out with cold fingers all the way up to his heart.

“Is it yer soulmate?” Osamu asked, sitting down on the spot beside him. There was a concealed worry to his voice, something that made Atsumu know how ugly it must’ve looked; his brother always worried about him, but he never showed it like that, so openly, so raw in his eyes. “Are they okay?”

Atsumu puffed a laugh out of his lips, the sound breathy and raspy. The last thing he wanted was to laugh, but he couldn’t help it; his asshole of a brother was worried about him, kind of reminding him that yes, Osamu was human too.

“No idea,” He answered, straightening his back, rolling his shoulders to get rid of the stiffness that seemed to lock his articulations in place. “But they must be really, _really_ hurt.”

“Ya think they had an accident?”

“Nah,” Atsumu rested his elbows on his thighs, right above his knees, and cradled his fingers through his hair. Sweat squeaked against the sensitive skin of the palms of his hand, sending shivers down his back. “I think someone broke their heart.”

Osamu’s eyes were heavy on him, searching, questioning: people didn’t tend to have a partner if they weren’t their soulmate and even if they liked someone and the feeling was mutual, it wasn’t usual for them to actually get together. Didn’t matter how much time it took, how much effort they put into the relationship, the chances of finding one’s soulmate always towered over new relationships like a threat. The most affected were, of course, teenagers’ relationships; they were fragile and unstable, which didn’t seem really appealing at such a vulnerable time in life.

It was risking a lot of things for nothing because it was doomed to shatter in the end.

“Ya ready to go back ta practice?” Osamu asked, standing up. He brushed his hands against his shorts, getting rid of some dust Atsumu knew wasn’t there. It looked like his worry had finally overwhelmed him if the face he pulled off was something to get by. “Or ya need a few minutes?”

“’m ready,” he assured, standing up as well. His knees still felt weak and the feeling of something weighing in the pit of his stomach still pressed against his heart, but he managed to fake that he was perfectly okay. _Push through it. Push ‘til ya leave it all behind._ “Let’s go, ‘Samu.”

By the look his brother gave him, Atsumu knew he didn’t believe him. There was nothing he could do, though, because he knew how stubborn Atsumu was. Once he settled on something, Heaven and Hell could try to change his mind and it would be worthless.

With a sigh, Osamu led the way back to the court.

There were a few more times when he felt the same kind of pain. Something cold and piercing, something that took his breath away —not in the romantic way— and made him want to crawl to a dark corner and cry. It hurt so much that Atsumu wasn’t even sure it was possible for someone to feel _this much_. What sort of tragic life was his soulmate living? Were they a masochist or something? Atsumu couldn’t even fathom feeling this deeply— not first-hand, that is. Because he’d felt the same pain, more times than he’d ever expected, and he was sure as hell he’d never want these feelings to belong to him.

It was scary. It made him wonder if it was really worth the price. What could lead to such a deep wound?

The answer came to him a few years later, when he was seventeen and his team lost to Karasuno at the Interhigh. The only thing that could cause such an unbearable amount of pain was _love_.

When the ball hit the court and the whistle pierced through the static that took over his brain, he felt something akin to what he’d felt when he was fifteen years old. It wasn’t that hard to bear but it still made his knees weaken with the weight of meeting defeat in his first match. Karasuno’s players sparkled with joy, and there was something bitter to having lost to Kageyama, but the sourest part of it all was knowing he’d lost to someone who could toss to Hinata Shouyou.

“I’ll toss fer ya one of these days,” he’d said pointing at Shouyou, sweat rolling down his skin, damped shirt sticking to his chest and back, his raised arm trembling due to exhaustion. Hinata’s eyes were fixed on him, shining like amber under the lights of the Metropolitan Gymnasium, some sort of precaution in them burning like fire under a patina of ice. “But before that happens, I’ll destroy ya at the Interhigh, so ya better brace yerself.”

The glimmer in Hinata’s eyes was a welcoming one. His irises seemed to scream that he was expecting it, and among the roaring of the crowd, the applauses, and the shouting, it was the only thing his mind could hold on to. The world narrowed to only Shouyou’s gaze, only the challenging stare piercing Atsumu’s own.

Atsumu started to suspect Shouyou was his soulmate during the Karasuno’s match against Kamomedai.

His nerves had prickled with electricity when Hinata fell, so exhausted it wasn’t possible for him to recover with a simple time out. Hands tense around the veranda of the gymnasium, knuckles going bone-white due to the force imprinted in the motion. There was something screaming in his chest, something that made him feel like he’d been the wronged one. That— that _wasn’t right_. Hinata was supposed to be there until the end of the match, to raise his fist in victory once he’d finally defeated Hoshiumi Kourai.

The pain that exploded in his chest made him grit his teeth. Was it his own pain or the pain Hinata was feeling? The expression he bore was a death-sentenced man’s and Atsumu wanted nothing more than to erase it. He didn’t even know why, but he wanted to. He wanted to see Hinata fly one more time… just _one more time—_

He left the court and Atsumu couldn’t help the bitter smile on his face. 

“Us foxes... the kitty-cats... and then those seagulls. It took all three of us ta bring that monster down.”

Atsumu would’ve liked it better if he was the one to bring that monster down. There was no satisfaction in seeing him go, defeated and trembling. There could be no satisfaction if he wasn’t the one who’d made him fall. If he wasn’t at fault for this, then the only thing he could’ve really felt satisfying to see was Shouyou raising the trophy after defeating the final boss of that hellish championship.

This was bitter, painful. This was not how things were supposed to go, even if the logical part of his brain insisted on reminding him that this is how things worked in the Nationals.

When the third set ended and Kamomedai moved on to the semi-finals, Atsumu braced himself for the pain that was coming. It hit him deep, raw and impossible to stop, impossible to assimilate, impossible to live through— and somehow, he’d managed to do so.

One match. It only took one match for him to find the person whose feelings were so deep they broke his own heart. He should’ve known— even when he had no way to. The only person capable of feeling this much had to be Hinata Shouyou; no one else in this world, no one, could even begin to harbour such a deep love for something.

Atsumu believed, in the deepest part of his heart, that Shouyou’s love for volleyball competed with his own. And if that was true, how many times had Hinata felt the same pain Atsumu had felt throughout his life? How many heartbreaks had been strong enough to overcharge the bond, a wound so deep that it could reach that stamina monster wherever he might’ve gone? The idea made him shiver; was he able to find the cracks in Shouyou’s heart the same way Shouyou seemed to find his? Would he even notice given how strong his feelings were?

If his pain hurt like this, how deep would he feel love? Hope? Atsumu wished the bond between them could carry those things as well; the reasons as to why soulmates shared only pain were a complete mystery. Why did they end up sharing only wounds and sorrow? Was it because pain was the one thing that seemed to connect people above everything else?

“Let’s go, ‘Samu,” Atsumu croaked, realizing now that he’d been silent for a too long. His voice was hoarse and heavy, scratching his throat on its way out. He realized then, too, that his eyes burned, irritated by the tears he so desperately wanted to spill. “Let’s grab somethin’ ta eat.”

Osamu looked at him, curious. If he noticed the way Atsumu’s voice broke, he didn’t comment on it.

There was one time when he could feel Shouyou’s pain while standing right in front of him. It was during his third year at Inarizaki when he was finally able to fulfil half of the promise he’d made. Beating Karasuno was something he longed for since the first time his eyes fell on the small frame of Shouyou’s back and he wished he could’ve enjoyed it at its fullest. But the way Shouyou pressed his lips into a thin line, filled with a sadness that seemed to reach into the deepest parts of his soul, kind of took some of the joy away.

He ignored it, though. Now it was time for Atsumu to feel happiness at the expense of Shouyou’s suffering. That was the way the world worked; happiness always came with a price and that price usually was someone else’s tears. It was inevitable.

Although in the big order of things, in this imaginary blackboard he’d created in his head where he would write down every single time he’d felt his soulmate’s sorrow versus the times he’d felt a pain so deep it surely overcharged the bond, Hinata was definitely winning. The only victory he would never celebrate, whereas Atsumu, being the victory-driven-monster that he was, would completely savour to its full extent. Winning was winning, didn’t matter who suffered for it.

Then Osamu decided he wanted to quit volleyball and work with food and Atsumu wondered if he’d really celebrate a victory like this. One submerged into tears, anger, and disgust. One filled with snarky words and challenges screamed at the top of his lungs.

The happiest twin. The one who would live the most fulfilling life. For one moment, one single second suspended at the edge of the clock waiting to fall and crash into nothingness, he feared. Was he really going to beat Osamu in this one? The life he’d chosen was one that didn’t avoid sadness, sorrow, and suffering. This life he’d so desperately chase until the end of his time on Earth, the path he was sure was going to be walked along Osamu.

 _Hey, Shouyou-kun_ , he’d thought. _Can ya feel this? ‘m ‘bout ta cry myself ta sleep tonight._

He wanted to know. He wanted to ask, to reach out and let him know who he was because there was no way in hell Hinata had realized they were bound to be together, one way or another. Destiny had already decided for them and Atsumu wasn’t really sure if Shouyou was willing to accept this; he was the kind of person that would challenge destiny and laugh at its face. The fact that he stood on the court, fighting people that could be twice his height, and still won, and defeated one after the other, was the only proof Atsumu needed to know that Hinata Shouyou wasn’t fond of destiny.

But _this_ , this was the only sure thing they had in life. The knowledge of someone being out there waiting to find him was exhilarating— it was the only thing he’d wanted to share. The only thing besides volleyball because that was something he’d always wanted to share with Osamu.

But now Osamu didn’t want to share it with Atsumu and the only person in the world that would was Shouyou.

Was he really willing to let destiny decide for him over this? Would he really welcome him into his life knowing that it wasn’t his choice but fate’s?

And so Atsumu fell silent. He never reached out to Shouyou, never told him who he was and what that meant for both of them. If Hinata, the one person who was actually meant to be with him, rejected him, he didn’t know if he could survive that.

Hinata left, crossed the ocean, moved to Brazil. Even with the physical distance between them, Atsumu could still feel the physical pain. Sometimes, he could also feel the emotional pain Shouyou felt now and then. Didn’t matter how many miles laid between them, they’d always be connected, bonded.

Life went on. Silently, he shared every wound, be it physical or emotional, with Shouyou. A twisted ankle, a burnt finger when cooking. Desperation and deep, hurtful longing for something Atsumu didn’t know and wasn’t sure if Hinata knew. The greatest the sorrow, the deepest it reached.

Life went on. Feelings were shared and hidden. Sorrows were cried over and losses were accepted. From both sides of the bond they kept closing their eyes and accepting what destiny decided to throw at them, unable to say no and defenceless in the face of something greater than them.

Life went on, and now Atsumu played in the V League. The first division. He’d somehow done it. He was completely sure he was the happiest twin and he did want to share that with Shouyou, but he was limited by the twisted way the destiny had to work things out. They were bound to share only tears and blood and all those nasty things humans were capable of feeling. He wanted Shouyou to feel the same way he did, he longed for Hinata to be able to feel the happiness that overwhelmed him whenever he had the chance to stand on the court, knowing that this was what he did for a living.

He wanted to share everything because he wanted to know if Shouyou was happy, if his life was as fulfilling as Atsumu’s.

The only clue he had about it was the fact that it had been a long time since he felt that piercing pain that seemed to bend him by the waist and leave him breathless. Sure, there were all kinds of physical problems— an ignored sunburn that hissed at the friction of the sheets, the sting of the ocean against the tender, mushy flesh under a broken blister. The burn of a scrape on the taut skin of his knee. The slight headache caused by standing too long under the scorching sun. The numb pain of a bruise, muffled by the way we tend to ignore them until we see the purple painting the skin. But the emotional pain was absent for so long he almost forgot he could feel it, filling him with such relief that he dreaded the moment it came crashing down, twice as powerful for having being forgotten.

Hinata came back then and Atsumu didn’t find out over Instagram or Twitter. He found out when a mop of orange hair peeked through the gap between the gymnasium’s doors, tanned skin glimmering under the hard, cold lights that hung over their heads, attached to the joists on the ceiling.

He’d grown in height but he was still smaller than the average pro volleyball player. His hair was shorter than he remembered, allowing Atsumu’s eyes to roam over the curve of his neck without restrictions. Broad shoulders and muscled arms, small waist and strong legs. The same smile plastered on his face, eyes glimmering the same way he remembered. He was different yet the same, and Atsumu wondered if this stamina monster had pushed his limits beyond limits themselves. Would it take foxes, cats, and seagulls to bring him down, now?

He hoped not. If Shouyou was able to go through the try-outs and become a member of the team, he’d finally leave the feathers behind to wrap himself in the fur of a jackal.

He was sure that Hinata would become his teammate. It was fate. They were destined for each other after all. And when he did become a member of the MSYB Black Jackals, Atsumu could only smile, finally getting rid of the dread that filled his chest and had gone unnoticed until the coach announced the names of the new members.

Their first practice together left him breathless and excited, body buzzing with energy. Shouyou had _changed_ ; no unnecessary motions, a calmed exterior that broke down when he was given the chance to jump and smash the ball on the other side of the court. He was so grateful for every toss Atsumu gave to him, so deeply moved when he was chosen to finish the play. It reminded Atsumu of how the simple things could give him happiness, how he usually tended to overlook and ignore those tiny details in life, which made it so worth living.

“Your tosses are amazing, Atsumu-san!” Hinata beamed, out of breath, drenched in sweat. The sun-kissed skin seemed to be embedded with diamonds, glistering softly under the illumination of the gymnasium. “They’re so easy to hit, and they feel like ‘gwaaaah’!”

What was with Hinata and onomatopoeias?

“Dja need me ta change somethin’ ‘bout them?” Atsumu asked, drying the drop of water running down the corner of his mouth. He felt _so hot_ whenever he was close to him that it made sense Shouyou had two suns in his name; just being in his presence filled him with a warm feeling, which made him feel so soft he thought there was nothing wrong in the world. Water didn’t seem to ease the dryness of his tongue or the tight feeling of his throat. “Speed, angle, place— ya name it and I’ll change it.”

Shouyou seemed to consider that for a moment. His gaze was fixed on something Atsumu wasn’t capable of seeing, seemingly too far away for simple mortals to reach. It felt as if Hinata was always looking into the monsters’ territory, there were Atsumu was only allowed when playing. Shouyou, on the other hand, seemed to live there, to have created it in the first place.

“I think I can do it faster,” He retorted, brows furrowed. His finger tapped on his lower lip, the skin chapped and bitten at. “Yup, definitely can do it faster!”

“Ya want me ta change the place?”

Hinata looked at him, blinking in confusion. He was so tiny compared to the rest of the team— he was smaller than their libero. And yet, the presence that followed him and seemed to crush everyone under was still there, even with the puzzled look on his face.

“Change the place?” he repeated, tilting his head to the right, suddenly looking like a bird. _A crow, one that’d gouge my eyes out if ‘m not careful._ “Like, closer to the net and stuff?”

“Yeah.”

Hinata giggled, the sound sending goosebumps all over Atsumu’s nerves. What a pretty sound that was.

“Atsumu-san,” Shouyou began, smiling so widely the setter was sure that had to hurt, “doesn’t matter where you send the ball, I’ll be there to spike it.”

Atsumu blinked. Once, twice, three times. Silence fell between them, hanging over their heads with the strange feeling of not being really silent. The squeaking of shoes against the linoleum, the _bam_ of a spiked ball, the instructions and corrections of block follow. Sounds that seemed to merge with the silence among them, surrounding them, coming together to make a new kind of silence Atsumu had never experienced in his life.

What had happened to him in Brazil? Somehow, he’d believed —for a long time, to be really honest— it was quite the opposite: it was more of a «doesn’t matter where you jump, the ball will be there» kind of feeling. Was this proof that Shouyou didn’t depend on his setter the way he depended on Kageyama back then?

A smile pulled the corners of his mouth, soft and satisfied.

“And doesn’t matter where ya jump,” he assured, reaching out with his hand to ruffle Hinata’s hair, “the ball will be there.”

Hinata smiled, _beamed_ , and Atsumu had to hold back from putting his hand in front of his eyes to avoid getting blinded by the metaphoric sun in front of him.

“That’s good to hear,” Shouyou sighed, a dreamy look in his eyes.

Atsumu felt the burning need to tell him, right then and there. To finally let go of the silent vow he’d made all those years ago. It felt as if he’d forgotten somehow but it came back to him with the strength of a wave crashing against the rocks: soulmates. Bounded over pain. And the necessity _burned_ inside of his chest, the desire to see Shouyou’s face once he realized who he really was.

Meian called Hinata then, breaking the spell. Shouyou’s head turned to their captain, his eyes lighting up when he heard something about serve practice, and after apologizing to Atsumu, he ran off.

Atsumu’s eyes followed him while he crossed the gymnasium, as fast as always. He sparkled when Bokuto gave him a friendly pat on the back, yelling about how proud he was about his favourite disciple, and giggled when Meian reprimanded Bokuto for being so loud.

He sighed. It felt like a lost opportunity but he knew that wasn’t the only one he’d get. It still frustrated him, though, because the words had been at the tip of his tongue, burning to be released.

_Hey, Shouyou-kun. Didja know ‘m yer soulmate?_

What a ridiculous way to say it. Even in his head it sounded stupid. Those things were supposed to be treated with the utmost care, with delicacy. He couldn’t just go and reveal it, just like that, as if he’d talked about the weather.

No. If he was gonna say it, it had to be special. Unique. Something so precious needed to be treated as such.

He didn’t have time to plan something that lived up to the secret he wanted to reveal, though. If someone had asked him to choose, he’d probably said he’d invite Shouyou to a fancy dinner. Maybe a few drinks, to then tell him, over a glass of wine or champagne, who he really was. Sweet words, a speech worthy of the occasion. Screw the fear he felt about Shouyou rejecting it because he wasn’t fond of fate— screw everything. He needed to get it out of his chest.

Fate was a funny thing. It had its own way of working things out.

The captain called him because the coach wanted to talk to them about their next match: the game against the Adlers. They had played against them a few times, always losing, but the team hoped Shouyou’s arrival would give them the upper-hand based on the surprise element. Kageyama, Ushijima, and Hoshiumi would, of course, know about Hinata, but that wasn’t a problem; as far as the Black Jackals knew, none of them had seen the decoy, even less played with or against him in the last years. He had changed so much it felt like he was a completely different player and they truly believed that would balance the game in their favour.

They gathered to discuss a few strategies for the game. The coach decided to start the game with Hinata replacing Barns on the court, saying they could totally use the lack of statistics regarding Shouyou’s performance. The team agreed, smiling widely at the idea of having the opportunity to play alongside the small spiker for the first time.

Then Bokuto clapped Hinata’s back and a piercing pain exploded in Atsumu’s mouth. He cursed out loud, pressing his open palm against his cheek as if to try to soothe the pain inside of his mouth at the same time Hinata whined, complaining about how he’d bitten his tongue.

The world seemed to freeze, the existence suspended upon the whole team’s heads. Atsumu felt their gazes fixed on him, weighing on his back, but he couldn’t focus on them. The only eyes he could really pay attention to were Shouyou’s, looking at him like it was the first time he’d seen him.

“Uhm,” started Bokuto, coughing to clear his throat. Yellow eyes fixed on Atsumu’s face and then on Shouyou as if he was trying to really understand what had happened. “You guys…?”

“Shut it, Bokkun,” Atsumu said, mortified.

 _Not like this_ , he thought, avoiding Shouyou’s eyes. _I don’t want him ta find out like this._

Hinata, however, seemed to ignore it. Atsumu knew Shouyou couldn’t be _so dense_ to not realize now that they were soulmates, but he also knew Hinata wasn’t going to talk about the topic immediately. He probably needed time to process the whole thing; finding one’s soulmate wasn’t something to be taken lightly. They needed to have a long —and probably exhausting— discussion about it.

Atsumu cringed at the idea. There went his desire of telling him during a romantic date, or just in an environment that made him feel comfortable and safe. The world was a dangerous place and no one ever knew how far people could go to get revenge for some petty thing that’d happened too many years ago to remember it.

The team —bless them— didn’t mention anything about the topic during what was left of the practice. They kept going on with the instructions of the coach and with the normal stuff they did. Block follow, spike practice, serves, coordination, special tricks someone had under their sleeves. The usual.

Atsumu dreaded the moment the clock ticked and the coach announced they were dismissed. Would Shouyou want to talk to him right away? Would he be afraid of having found his soulmate? Would he reject Atsumu because he didn’t want to live tied to what fate decided?

His hands trembled. He wasn’t ready to face that. He wasn’t ready to face any part of the current situation he found himself in. He wasn’t ready to face Shouyou’s eyes when he told him that it wasn’t a good idea to let destiny guide them.

And as it always happened when one dreaded the passing of time, Atsumu heard the coach’s whistle announcing the end of that day’s practice. After the last gathering of the day, they were given permission to head out for the showers and then go home.

Atsumu shivered. This was the first time he wasn’t happy to live in the same building as Shouyou. He honestly wasn’t happy about the whole situation and the idea of having to deal with the consequences of something so random as a bitten tongue was making him anxious.

“Atsumu-san.”

The setter froze mid-step. He’d just started to walk to the lockers, longing for a shower that would give him some time to look at the _current situation_ from a different angle. The shower would relax him, give him some time alone to go over the events that’d led him to that exact point in time. But fate, as cruel and sarcastic as it seemed to be, had other plans.

“Shouyou-kun,” he answered, turning on his heels. Hinata’s eyes were big, bright, and so sharp they seemed to bore holes into Atsumu’s skull. Changing his body weight from one foot to the other, he tried to build a façade to get enough time to _pretend_ he wasn’t freaking out. “What can I do for ya?”

Hinata giggled softly under his breath, irises glimmering with amusement.

“Does your tongue still hurt?”

 _Oh, ya cheeky bastard_.

“Did you know?” Hinata continued, frowning slightly. There was caution behind his eyes now, precaution surrounding him like an aura. It was akin to the presence Atsumu felt on the court when playing with him; the feeling was absolutely different, but it still attracted all of his attention. Every single thing Hinata projected always demanded to be heard, seen, and understood. “That we’re soulmates, I mean.”

Atsumu pressed his lips into a tense line. Shouyou was a complete mystery; he could never know how he’d react when the topic at hand wasn’t volleyball. Would he be angry? Would he understand Atsumu’s reasons? He’d built an entire theory about how Shouyou would react to the idea of them being soulmates but he had no way of knowing if he was in the right. The only solution to the problem was actually asking him and he hadn’t been ready to do so. And now, when fate had decided once again for him and for Hinata, Atsumu had no idea of what to do.

“What makes ya say that?” he asked, faking the confusion in his voice.

Hinata tilted his head. His eyes weren’t welcoming nor amused anymore. The precaution in his gaze sharpened and Atsumu recognized the way he was staring at him. Those were the eyes Hinata showed to every single person who dared to underestimate him. The way he looked at Atsumu made him think about a snake, naked fangs with poison dripping down, waiting to sink into his flesh.

He lifted his hand to his mouth and bit on the soft flesh between his thumb and his index finger, strong enough to draw blood.

“Shit,” Atsumu hissed, taken by surprise. He could feel every single tooth that pierced through Shouyou’s skin, the acidic feeling of the bite ringing on its way up the nerves of his arm. “Holy shit, Shouyou-kun, what the _fuck—_ ”

“I don’t appreciate lies, Atsumu-san,” he said, rubbing the back of his hand on his t-shirt to clean the blood dripping from his wounds. Atsumu knew how much the marks left on his skin hurt, how they pulsed with every beat of his heart. But Hinata seemed unfazed as if he couldn’t feel the pain at all. “I appreciate them _even less_ coming from my soulmate.”

Oof. That was a low blow. Atsumu cringed at the words, knowing all too well he was right about being this angry. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t explain himself.

“I did know,” he said, frowning. His left hand felt numb due to the subsiding pain, pulsing with every pump of Shouyou’s blood through his veins. The shorter one raised his brows, expectant. “I’ve known for a while now.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was scared,” was the short, direct, and simple answer. Atsumu never returned anything he was lent, and he knew damn well his brother didn’t trust him. Miya Atsumu was a liar, someone who avoided sincerity as much as he could. It was weird for him to tell the truth so easily, without petty and ornamented words hiding the real meaning behind what he said. But now, in front of Shouyou, under his attentive and piercing gaze, he couldn’t help but be honest. “I was scared ya’d reject the bond between us.”

Shouyou’s expression softened then, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. His eyes lost their sharpness and what was left behind was pure fondness. The features of his face were filled with something Atsumu couldn’t quite identify but made his stomach do somersaults, his mouth going dry with the muffled feeling of longing.

“But Atsumu-san,” Hinata began, softly and secretive. His voice sounded raspy and almost velvety, electrifying Atsumu’s nerves, tingling in the mere marrow of his bones, “why would I do that?”

The setter cleared his throat, trying to get rid of the stiffness that made it difficult to speak.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, averting his gaze from Hinata’s face. The shorter one was glowing and he’d never looked more alike to the sun than he did at that exact second, “I thought ya didn’t want ta… y’know, let fate decide this for ya.”

“Oh, but it’s nice, isn’t it?” Shouyou giggled, taking a step forward, standing just a few centimetres from Atsumu’s personal space. His mind seemed to draw a line around him like a bubble that separated him from the one thing he wanted, he longed for, the most. Something inside of him pleaded for Shouyou to cross it, to step into this unknown territory where Atsumu waited impatiently. “Having someone out there waiting _just_ for you. Isn’t that exciting?”

He wouldn’t describe it as exciting. Not completely, at least. It was down-right _terrifying_. Atsumu was lucky to have found his soulmate relatively easily; it only took seventeen years. It sounded like a lot of time, but in perspective, it wasn’t even half of a normal human life. He’d heard of stories about people who’d never found their soulmate, be it for geographical reasons or age gaps that made it impossible for them to even become friends, let alone be a couple. And having waited so long for Shouyou to find out they were bound to be together hadn’t been easy either; patience was a virtue Miya Atsumu couldn’t say he possessed. How he’d managed to wait this long was a mystery he was sure he’d never decipher.

“It’s scary, though,” Hinata kept going, musing to himself. Atsumu blinked in his direction; something moved behind those glimmering, sharp eyes. Something akin to fear, akin to the feeling of being left in the dark with cero knowledge of the surroundings. Atsumu could relate— _would relate_ if he didn’t have the person he was destined for right in front of him, dancing on the limit of the line his brain had drawn. “I could feel it too, you know. Your pain, I mean. It’s obvious, but it surprised me. How could someone feel _this much_?”

Laughter bubbled up in his chest, the sound incredulous and breathy. How could Shouyou say _Atsumu_ felt too much? It was Hinata’s pain the one he’d feared his entire life, not his own.

“ _I’m_ the one who feels too much?” he breathed out, incredulous. “Shouyou-kun, dja know how many times I had ta stop whatever the hell I was doin’ ‘cause somethin’ broke yer heart?”

Shouyou blinked, taken aback. Tilting his head, he took one step forward.

“Really?” he asked, surprised. “I hadn’t realized…”

“S’not like ‘m blamin’ ya or somethin’,” Atsumu rushed to say, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat. His hands itched to reach out, to hold Shouyou and pull him closer. But something was stopping him, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It irked him. “Yer not ta blame for havin’ feelings.”

“You aren’t, either,” Hinata whispered. Oh, he was close. Too close for comfort, because all those things Atsumu wanted to do were making him anxious. It felt like having an itch he couldn’t scratch. “You feel a lot, too, you know? You’re hurting… all the time.”

The hell was he talking about? The only reason he feared pain wasn’t because of his own, it was because of Shouyou’s. He wouldn’t have exchanged it for anything, but he couldn’t say it was a pleasant experience.

“It felt like you were always missing something,” Shouyou explained, pensive.

“Well, yeah,” Atsumu stuttered, scratching at the back of his neck. Shouyou’s eyes were curious now and the setter didn’t want to say out loud that he was constantly missing Hinata. It was too soon to tell him how much he’d been waiting. “Didn’t ya feel the same?”

“I missed my friends. And home… and it hurt a lot,” Shouyou sighed, looking unreachable now. He seemed to exist in another world, a place where Atsumu couldn’t reach. He looked nostalgic as if looking back made him revive everything he lived in Brazil. But Atsumu didn’t feel the ache in his chest, didn’t feel the need to cry. The memories didn’t seem to hurt Hinata anymore. “But I think what I missed the most was… just the past, you know? Karasuno and my team. Things I’ll never get back.”

His hand reached out, then, as if to really prove that Hinata still existed in the same reality as he did. The tip of his fingers grazed over his temple, the thin hair tickling on his skin, and then followed the curve of his cheekbone, falling gracefully over the angle of his jaw. Hinata shivered under his touch, tilted his head as if to pursue the heat coming from Atsumu’s fingers, sighed under his breath while his eyelids fluttered closed to hide the surprised glimmer of his eyes. Atsumu pressed his pinkie against the vein in his neck, feeling the frantic beating of Hinata’s heart on his skin.

He did exist in the same reality as him. Hinata was right in front of him and he hadn’t been the one to cross the line Atsumu’s brain had drawn, but it didn’t matter. Someone had to do it and it wasn’t really important who took the first step. The only thing that mattered there, with Hinata’s warmth pressed against his palm, real, breathing and _alive_ under his touch, was the fact that they happened to exist at the same time, in the same portion of the world. And somehow, as if fate had decided to stop being a little bitch about everything, it’d decided, too, to bond them for life. How lucky he was. To be able to say he shared such a deep connection with someone as amazing as Hinata Shouyou.

Hinata’s hand came to rest against the back of Atsumu’s, his fingertips grazing over the framework of blue veins under the pale skin of his wrist. Atsumu feared, then, that he could feel the beating of his heart in the same way he could feel Hinata’s. There was something deeply intimate about it, something Atsumu didn’t know if he was ready to share just yet. To feel exposed like this, with all his feelings displayed for the other one to see, was something he wasn’t used to.

“Your heart is beating so fast,” Shouyou sighed, caressing the inside of Atsumu’s wrist. His thumb drew disjointed patterns over the skin, circles with no meaning electrifying his nerves. Atsumu wanted to retreat his hand, to keep the rabbit-like beating of his heart to himself but it was too late. Hinata nosed at the palm of his hand, the soft skin sliding effortlessly over the flesh under his thumb. “It’s nice to know I’m not alone.”

The desire stopped as sudden as it’d began. He _knew_ how nervous Shouyou was but hearing him saying it like that was a completely different story. Words mattered, he’d learned that much thorough his life. Atsumu couldn’t expect Shouyou to know what was going on in his head and he couldn’t expect to know what was happening in Shouyou’s either. Both needed to put all those thoughts in words, transform the messy ideas into speech. And while Atsumu pulled Hinata into the circle of his arms, pressing his nose against the crook of his neck, he let the anxiety subdue little by little until it was almost gone.

 _It’s nice to know I’m not alone_. Such simple words. Such a simple sentence constructed with the simplest of the structures existing in their language… and yet the power they held made the uneasiness drift away, the fear and the doubt disappearing as if they’d never been there in the first place.

Hinata Shouyou wasn’t fond of destiny. He never let anyone make decisions for him. Every single step he’d taken up until now had been based on his choice and his choice alone. He was no child in need of someone else to take the wheel of his life. He challenged fate over and over again until he eventually beat it and got to stand on the place he’d always dreamed of. Shouyou demanded to be seen, to be heard, didn’t matter what destiny wanted. He’d basically told it to fuck off so many times that Atsumu couldn’t quite understand the reasons as to why he’d surrendered so easily to this.

“I can hear you thinking, Atsumu-san,” Shouyou’s voice was muffled by the setter’s chest. His arms had surrounded Atsumu’s waist, his hands pressed against his back, right under his shoulder blades. He could feel his laughter, though, through the shaking of his shoulders and the damp air that hit the front of his shirt. “What is it?”

“S’… dontcha hate it?” He asked, fearing the answer the moment the question came out of his mouth. “Havin’ a ‘destined one’… doesn’t it take your chance ta decide?”

Shouyou’s gaze rose up, his chin pressing against Atsumu’s chest. His cheeks were blushed, his hair was a mess, and his lips looked bitten at. He looked the same as he did back then in the Metropolitan Gymnasium, small and way too energetic for his own good. The glow of his irises told stories about old duels, won battles, and losses that still hurt. But his eyes still shone with challenge, although Atsumu didn’t know if it was aimed at him or at fate.

“No, it doesn’t bother me,” he assured, his smile going ear to ear. “Because I still defeated fate, didn’t I?”

Atsumu’s eyebrows flew to his hairline with surprise.

“How come?”

“In a world where ninety percent of the individuals never get to meet their soulmate,” he started, looking so proud of himself that Atsumu had to contain an amused snort, “I got to meet mine at fifteen. If that’s not beating destiny, I don’t know what it is.”

Atsumu’s hands were on Hinata’s cheeks now, pushing him away until the distance between them allowed him to lean down. Shouyou’s sharp inhale had a neediness to it that made the setter’s knees go weak and when he stood on the tip of his toes, meeting Atsumu’s mouth halfway, he hummed in approval. It was almost cathartic to finally kiss him, to finally be able to say out loud that they shared a bond no one could get in the way of. They belonged to each other from the moment they were conceived, and although Hinata was fate’s biggest enemy, he’d let that victory belong to it. 

In a world where ninety percent of the individuals never got to meet their soulmate, Miya Atsumu had gotten to meet his at the age of seventeen. And he waited for seven years to fulfil the remaining half of a promise he’d made after a defeat, filled with sadness and regret. He’d waited for seven years to test a theory that had him lying awake at night, wondering what would happen if he was right. And while Shouyou’s lips slid against his, his breath catching in his throat and his pulse roaring in his ears, Atsumu could say he wouldn’t have minded if he had to wait another seven years.

**Author's Note:**

> That's all from me for today! If you're wondering, yes, I'm posting this as soon as the clock hits midnight here in Chile. Shhhh, no one needs to know I've got class at 8 am, that's unnecessary. Shhhh. 
> 
> This was my first Soulmate!AU so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoy writing it! I wanted to do something different for today's prompt, so I decided to go with pain because I'm just mean like that. 
> 
> Anyway, if you enjoyed it, please leave your kudos! They make me very happy!!!
> 
> Come scream at me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Xhiiluh)! We can scream together! The AtsuHina Week is killing me with all the amazing content and I don't want to scream into the Void™ on my own!!
> 
> See ya tomorrow!


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